Help on the Way!

So, I’m back after a little break. Back and feelin’ good. Why? Because my friends at the local library hooked me up with the perfect companion book, an episode by episode annotated guide. And after reading the introduction to this book, it looks like a real winner. Full of great information, with tons of background data, reference notes, and even tips on reading the thing. It’ll be like having my very own university professor helping me along. In fact, the author explains that the book began as handouts distributed to his students, study aids to help him teach the book…and that’s exactly what I need! All of this studyin’ and thinkerin’ and whatnot on my part will of course require much more work but hey, I didn’t sign up for a mere walk in the woods! It does feel like a bit of a concession though, using the annotations as opposed to puzzling it out on my own. However, it seems pretty undeniable at this point that the sheer depth of the text requires some outside support. One of the main lessons I will be taking from this project, generally, as a reader of fiction, is this: some books simply cannot be read without annotations of some sort. Practically speaking, it just can’t be done.

Oh yeah, and one last thing, this book of annotations appears to be longer than Ulysses itself. But of course you knew that already.